Asia and Pacific

In April, voters in Indonesia's parliamentary elections shocked many observers, confounded most pollsters, and seemed to set back their own long-term interests by failing to deliver a massive victory to the main opposition party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.

Charles Kupchan explores the normative dimensions of hegemony, examining the geopolitical, socioeconomic, cultural, and commercial logics that inform orders across four great powers: the Ottoman Empire, Imperial China, Great Britain, and the United States.

On a bright January day, a group of around 200 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists dressed in black, to symbolize mourning, gathered at Jantar Mantar, a site in New Delhi that frequently plays host to protests and demonstrations.

South Korea's development over the last half century has been nothing short of spectacular. Fifty years ago, the country was poorer than Bolivia and Mozambique; today, it is richer than New Zealand and Spain, with a per capita income of almost $23,000.

As recently as 2008, the economies of Southeast Asia received roughly less than half as much foreign direct investment as China did. Four years later, in 2012, they pulled to within spitting distance ($111 billion versus $121 billion).

In their essay "Fake It Till You Make It" (July/August 2013), Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman urged the United States to "relax" when it comes to the flagrant disregard for intellectual property laws in China.

International forces in Afghanistan are preparing to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan soldiers and police by the end of 2014. U.S. President Barack Obama has argued that battlefield successes since 2009 have enabled this transition and that with it, "this long war will come to a responsible end."

Much of the debate about China's rise in recent years has focused on the potential dangers China could pose as an eventual peer competitor to the United States bent on challenging the existing international order.

Japan's prime minister speaks openly about the mistakes he made in his first term, Abenomics, Japan's wartime record (and his own controversial statements on that history), and the bitter Senkaku/Diaoyu Island dispute with China.